Facebook clears network of lateral thinking movement

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Participant in a lateral thinking demonstration in November 2020 in Leipzig: »Real violence exercised against people«

Photo: Sebastian Willnow / dpa

Facebook has taken action against a network of the lateral thinking movement and has permanently deleted several channels on its platform and the company's Instagram service. As the company announced on Thursday evening, the measure affects both individual accounts as well as pages and groups that are related to the movement in Germany. How many exactly, Facebook did not say. But it should be "less than 150 accounts, pages and groups," it said as a rough indication from the company.

In a blog post, Facebook justified the measure by stating that the channels had repeatedly violated the company's community standards "in a coordinated manner".

"This includes the publication of health-related misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence," wrote Nathaniel Gleicher, global security chief of Facebook and Semjon Rens, who is responsible for guidelines on political issues in German-speaking countries.

New rules against "threatening networks"

According to Facebook, however, the move does not mean that the lateral thinking movement is fundamentally prohibited on Instagram and Facebook. The company just wanted to prevent the improper use of its own platforms. According to Facebook, the deleted accounts, pages and groups are said to have spread the conspiracy theory of the corona dictatorship and thus wrongly presented the German government's Covid-19 restrictions "as part of a large-scale plan" to restrict freedoms and fundamental rights.

The network also called for violence and Facebook had already taken action against individual posts in the past.

Since May 2021, a significant increase in the corresponding activities has been observed.

It is known that lateral thinking has already »exercised real violence against people«, the company wrote with reference to media reports.

The current measure is based on new rules with which Facebook wants to take stronger action against so-called "threatening networks".

Facebook understands this to mean threats emanating from "coordinated groups with authentic accounts," according to the company's blog in the company's own language of the community standards.

The removal of the lateral thinking accounts is the first time that Facebook has put the new rules into practice.

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